Originally posted by Belisarius
Quote:
There is an external world that exists independently of our minds.
There are understandable, quantifiable, natural laws that describe how things happen in this world.
These natural laws won’t change when we’re not looking; the universe isn’t totally chaotic.
So far, this faith has been well founded, as shown by the amazing accomplishments of modern science and medicine.
Atheism is a religion like the rest.
We have no proof that there is an external world that exists outside of our minds, or even the nature and extent of our minds. We have no proof that we ever existed at any point beyond this very moment, all we have is recollections of prior existance, which may or may not be true.
How are natural laws any different from God? Why does gravity hold things together? Noone can answer that. The author of the article argued that not everything has a cause, but at the same time causality is a basic physical rule, and the foundation of rational thought.
Atheism, like all religions, is equally false. We only have two things we can absolutely prove, the existance of ourselves, and the existance of our perceptions(not necessarily what we percieve). Naturalism, like all religion, is an attempt to explain the cause of our perceptions, which are likely nowhere near complete. If there is an external universe, our understanding of it is extremely limited. We can only observe energy, matter, and the effects of forces upon energy and matter.
How can you prove that the monitor in front of you exists? You see it yes, but is that proof of existance? If that is proof of existance then everything that we observe must exist, including God. If everything that I observe must exist, then I must be God, because I create everything.
Ok, it's official, I'm a soliphist.[/b]